Studying Nighthawks

Nighthawks-1942

By Edward Hopper an America artists

The painting is very detailed. I see a man and a women sitting at a bar with one other women. There is also a bartender and a street. The painting is very balanced because of the colors chosen. 

Edward Hopper is an American artist who lived in cape cod during the 1930's and 40's. He was a very famous and talented artist who married a model. He made the painting Nighthawks to resemble a restaurant. The painting is really about three customers all alone in the bar feeling lonely. 

He puts Emphasis on the yellow door on the back by making it a bright color on top of a dull color. He balances the picture well by focusing on the people on one side but also using a bright color to even the balance out on the other side. There is no rhythm or movement.

Finding Images That are Balanced

The Artists Habitat

An artist is someone who expresses anything thinkable through a visual, or hearable representation. An artist is someone who can express them selves and describe something in many different ways. Being creative means being able to think about everything in two ways, and being able to see what others don't see at first. 

Giving Up Control: POURS

To make a pour painting you had two pick several colors of paint pour them onto a blank sheet of paper and tilt the paper to move the paint around. It felt weird and somewhat frustrating to do something where I had almost no control. Surprisingly enough, the paintings in the end turned out beautiful and the only way could could have their unique beauty was by letting go of control and leaving it up to physics. The paintings were very good because the paterns and shapes and mixed colors, could not have been accomplished if there was control in what you wanted the outcome to look like. 

Revisiting My Pour Panting

1. Man with sun glasses
2. Monster with an open mouth
3. Devil faced human
4. Robed man
5. Animal slepping

Revisiting Observation/Description Activity

The parts of the painting that looked like the original were the one that described the layer and clearly stated the relativity to other objects in it. Describing what the general shape was and not the details worked very well. To many times the paintings were off because people focused on the details and not the key points. Describing size relative to the actual sheet of paper was also helpful. When people draw shapes inside shapes, and when people focused on detail the drawings became to confusing and it made the drawer feel disoriented in terms of shape and space in the drawing. If I were to do the activity again I would focus on color and general shapes in space more. 

Reflecting on The First Week

This week we did three activities, the collaborative drawings, the pour paintings, and the mapping the still life drawing. All of these three activities required us to be able to work out of our comfort zone, we had to cope with change and we had to work without control of the outcome. In the collaborative drawings we had to let other people draw in our drawing and let them take it in any direction. To do this assignment properly we had to work out of our comfort zone by having someone else do what ever they wanted to something we worked hard on, we had to cope with the changes our peers made and we had work knowing we had know control of the out come of what it would look like. In the pour paintings we had to work out of comfort zone because we had to give up control, we had to cope with change because the painting was constantly mixing and moving, and we had to somewhat work without having control of the outcome because of how the paint would hit the paper, how it would mix and how it would dry. In the mapping still life activity we had to utilize these three skills to the best of our ability. It was out of our comfort zone to have someone else controlling the change in our drawing and having to add and take away objects. For this same reason we also had to cope with change and be prepared to give up control of the outcome. 

The Principles of Design

Artist use pod to create unity (everything goes together).

Want everything together but you want variety.

Balance 

Is when the visual weight of the picture is equal everywhere.

Four types of balance.

1.)Symmetry

Draw line down middle of a picture same on right and left

2.)Approximately Symmetrical

Almost symmetrical

3.)Asymmetry

Opposite if symmetry

4.)Radial Balance

Everything is the same coming out of the center

Emphasis

Rhythm & Movement

Same elements

Alternating Elements

Progression 

Proportion 

Size relationships of

1.)Colors

2.)Shapes

3.)Forms

Reflecting on Found Object Sculptures

I began my sculpture product by looking through objects i had found an grouping them according to how they looked and how they could be used. When I found the the black stringy tape from the tape recorder I knew I to use it. It inspired me to think about all the different things i could use it for. I finally decided that it could be best put to use as the fur of a animal. I began to look through my stuff again to try to find more objects. Now knowing what direction I was going in it was a little bit easier to zero in and filter out unusable objects, or objects that would not be practical for what I was creating. When I finally came upon a side to a black DvD player I was able to start building. The DvD player side had two walls that lifted it from the ground immediately standing out in my mind as a body. It was also black so it was color coordinated with the black tape. I came up with two ideas for animals, a zebra and a raccoon. I deiced that the zebra was not as good of a fit because the legs formed by the DvD player were two short and fat to be a zebra. This left me with only one choice the raccoon. I found more and more things helping me build my raccoon. I had completed the body when I realized that I what I had made resembled a panther more than a raccoon. When I looked for objects that could be made into a panther, I realized that they were all there. In the end I did end up completing my panther and it turned out better than I originally thought it would. The feedback I got back from my peers focused mainly on the lack of colors, but the variety in material and great use of material. Though I do appreciate colorful sculptures my sculpture was purposefully made to be unanimously colored black because of what I was building. 

Reflecting at Mid Term

This term I have made lots of progress. I have learned to see the potential in things I before viewed as  regular everyday objects. I have learned to pull ideas from everything in my surroundings and to be as creative as possible with my materials. I have learned to build off my ideas and to cope with change. I have also learned to do the best I can even when I feel like I don't have the materials, time or skills to complete a task. I have struggled at times to turn in work do to missed classes caused by soccer, sickness and dentist appointments but I have caught up and completed all of them. Though I am far from a perfect artist I do believe I have become a respectable artists and have learned a great deal from this class. It is always hard for me to get started but when I did I ended up completing pieces of art I was proud to call mine. I always try my hardest to produce artwork that i am proud of. 

The Work of Ingrid Calame

This does not seem very familiar. The way she creates her paintings is  much different then the way i create. When she sits down to a start working she has a no plan instead she starts and lets the art lead her. When I start artwork i like to know what I am about to create. Though that is not always a good thing because sometimes its better to just dive in and see where you end up. Ingrid Calame is an artist from California who make art that is based on cartographyy. She makes her paintings by tracing interesting things that she finds and then bringing them back to her studio and painting in the lines. She does this because she feels like the real art in life can be found on the streets and in everyday life. 

This picture is my favorite out of all her drawings. The different lines my seem out of order and all over the place but if you look at it closely every line is carefully traced and continues in a very precise way. The color contrast makes every line different. The variety in the pattern of the lines make every line and unique as well. When you look at this painting a number of times it never looks the same. Of course some lines you remember but there is always something knew to notice. 

The Changing Still Life

The assignment today was very hard. To be able to complete it we needed to do three things. One we needed to be able to adjust to changes in the drawing. We needed this skill because the drawing was always changing. Mrs Robert's added and took away parts of the drawing. The second thing we needed to be able to was stay focused on the point of the assignment. The assignment was to keep up with the changes in the drawing and focus on the big aspects. We needed to be able to not get caught up in all the small details. Finally the last thing we needed to do to complete this assignment was to be able to focus and make sure you were able to draw while things were changing. 

The Potential of Found Objects

The shape and size of an object tells you how you could use it. The color does not matter because it does not affect the outcome unless you are trying to make it one color. The size matters because you usually want it to be in purporting to the rest of the sculpture. And of course the shape matters because it needs to be in the general shape of what the object you are looking for is. 

Reflecting on My First Critic.

I need to fill out more space on my drawing and finish it. I could add orange sparks coming from the red and yellow explosion. I should have more emotion coming from and involving more of my characters. The yellow red contrast was very good. It worked well. The way the two met in the center was also cool. I liked having my classmates comment on my artwork. I think it was good because I can see how many different people interpret it. I thought it was very helpful. I thought it was nice to have criticism.